


tell me some things last

by gaily-daily (passionateartist)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: I cried while writing this, I decided to try my hand at shipping billford and boy do I regret it, M/M, inspired by the fic kmky, this is basically just a catharsis for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23233723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/passionateartist/pseuds/gaily-daily
Summary: Little by little Ford heals.
Relationships: Bill Cipher/Ford Pines
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	tell me some things last

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Knowing Me, Knowing You.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9529949) by [f_imaginings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/f_imaginings/pseuds/f_imaginings). 



> This was written because I made the mistake of reading Knowing Me Knowing You. After scaring my whole family and having random crying fits for three days, I decided I needed to do something to help my aching heart. 
> 
> This is less about how I hope KmKy will end and more about how I just need to heal the emptiness I feel everytime I think about KMKY. I'm not trying to write my own epilogue and I'm definitely not trying to take over f_imaginings wonderful fic. This is just what it says on the tin. A catharsis that I wrote to help me stop feeling so depressed.
> 
> That being said there are small elements from that fic I've employed. So if you've never read it (WHY THE FUCK NOT??? GO FUCKING READ IT!!) don't worry you can still understand this fic without it.

It had eventually become apparent that it had always been obvious to everyone that knew them 30 years ago. To everyone that had seen Bill and Ford interact around each other in those happy days. Ford had thought he'd been keeping it a secret. But he remembers how no one has been surprised when they ended up together.

After 30 years of betrayal and regret he thought that it would be substantially less obvious. But when his grandniece comes out to join him on the porch, Ford realizes he's never been good at hiding his heart. 

She lays her glitter covered hand over his and smiles. Ford has been spending a lot of time just sitting outside. Looking at the trees, at the vast forest, at the sky. 

She pulls out a book and flips to a page. It showcases all her failed summer romances. 

"I wanted to forget. Purge the memories from my mind."

She traces the picture of a merman.

"But I realized that loving them made me who I was. I don't want to forget the happy times. Even if it means living with the bad ones too."

His throat closes up. His chest tight. She was so young. Too young. And yet she was somehow more wise than him. 

She passes him the book. "If you want to put in your story you can."

Ford most likely won't, but he appreciates the gesture all the same. He squeezes her hand and quietly thanks her. 

She gets up and goes back into the house. Ford stays where he is, clutching the book. His failed Summer Romance. 

\- 

It takes several weeks on the boat before they're truly in sync with one another. Before it finally feels like no time has passed between them. They're teens in high school again. These days Ford feels lighter than he has in decades. 

It's when he joins his brother out on the deck one night that his brother finally asks.

"So... what's it like to fuck a triangle?"

Ford sputters. Stanley guffaws loudly. He's always had a loud laugh. But out here on the ocean, it seems it's twice as loud. It's happy and content. It fills Ford's ears and warms his chest. So he tries not to feel too indignant about it. 

So Ford just rolls his eyes. Stanley jabs him playfully in the side.

"Come on tell me! Who else you gonna tell?" 

Ford looks at his brother's face. It's open and honest. There isn't a shred of judgment there even though there should be. Bill hurt all of them. Stanley shouldn't care enough to ask about Ford's past relationship with a murderous mind demon. The entire town of Gravity Falls had decided to never speak about it again. It'd make sense if Stanley did too. If his brother was asking it was only to poke fun. To mock him for his poor dating choices.

But Stanley's smile is soft. He isn't trying to judge him. Or tease him (mostly). He just wants to know about his brother's life. He's trying to get to know him again after 30 years. 

Ford swallows. Something thick has caught in his mouth. He lets out a tiny breath of--laughter, relief, hope--and leans against the boat's railing. 

"It's fucking weird."

Having never heard his brother swear before, Stanley blinks, his eyes wide. Then, a shaking builds in his stomach up his chest and comes out his teeth. They're wide and white and Stanley's laughter fills the whole ocean. 

"When...when did _you_ stop being such a stickler?!" He gasps the words out between breaths.

"Sometime between falling through the portal and having my dreams ripped away from me."

The laughter stops and Ford suddenly wishes he'd never said anything at all. The sobering look on Stanley's face is too real. 

Stanford can feel a familiar tension building. The one filled with sorrow and guilt and the inability to truly understand each other. So Ford turns to face his brother and smiles.

"I can also swear in 50 different languages."

Stanley grins. 

"Teach me some!"

Ford shakes his head with a smile. "They're all alien languages you would have no need for them."

"So? Now I can tell someone to go fuck themselves they'll never know!"

"They'd get the intonation."

Stanley shrugs. "Still, pretty cool though."

They share another laugh before it quiets. They rest their arms upon the wood railing and stare out into the dark sea. The gentle waves lap against the boat. It was a calming rhythmic sound. It lulled him into sleep every night. A gentle rocking that told him all was well. The waves had him and he was safe.

"Which ones have you been to?"

Ford looks over and sees Stan pointing to the sky. Ford follows his finger up to the vast void above them. In his younger years Stanford would have said something less than kind about his brother's inability to understand how alternate dimensions worked. For his blatant ignorance.

"None of these. The stars I went to were from a different dimension." He says softly. 

Stan tilts his head. "Huh." Then looks back up.

Ford gazes up. Tracing the constellations with his eyes. Stars he never thought he'd see again. He pauses on one. Three points. All spread out in equilateral. 

Bill's favorite constellation.

_Ford looked back down at Bill. “That’s a triangle.”_

__

__

_“Yeah, but look in the middle, that cluster of stars there. You go one, two, three, four, and doesn’t that look like a rather dashing bowtie to you?” Bill grinned, and Ford wasn’t sure whether to be exasperated or endeared._

He traces it over and over. 

"Are you going to be okay?" Stan's voice is small. He's not looking at Ford. 

Ford lifts his hand and slides it over the part of his chest still blackened by a certain shape. It will be there on his chest for the rest of his days. That had been the deal. Forever they agreed. 

Stanford had raged and rebelled against it for 30 years. But know that he's looking up at the stars, he feels his heart beat and he clutches his chest. It feels like a promise. A knowing hope that gives him comfort. 

It hadn't been till death do they part. Forever they'd said. Until the end of time.

And as Ford looks at the constellation in the sky reminding him everything, he knows it remains true. A different place. In a different time. A deal's a deal. He will see him again.

"Yeah." 

Tomorrow his brother will probably press for more details. Ford wonders how long Stanley will last before he succeeds in grossing him out. Bill's anatomy was fascinating as much as it was unnerving. 

Tomorrow he will tell him the side of Bill that only he knew. How playful he could be. How his jokes were always terrible and yet Ford laughed at them anyway. How he gave so much to Stanford. Little gifts, little thoughts. Always looking out for him in the only ways Bill could while Ford traversed the multiverse.

Tomorrow he would tell him. But for now they both share each other's company in silence under the blanket of the universe.

Ford's hand presses firmly against his chest. He smiles. He looks forward to forever.


End file.
